Labour could do well to learn from the Welsh wing of the party as it responds to a near-wipe out in Scotland and faces the challenge of winning over voters in England, according to one of Wales’ most respected political scientists.

Richard Wyn Jones of Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre presented the findings of detailed research into political attitudes in England at the Labour conference in Brighton.

The party was shaken in May when it won just one of Scotland’s 59 constituencies and David Cameron secured a majority of 12 in the UK Parliament.

Prof Jones pointed to Wales as a part of the UK where Labour had embraced its national identity.

He asked a fringe audience: “Where was the only part of the UK where Labour actually won the last UK general election? It was in Wales.”

Richard Wyn Jones

He said Labour in Wales had once been “deeply conflicted” about whether to present itself as distinctly Welsh.

But he said: “After its drubbing in 1999, after that really traumatic experience of the first devolved election, they have embraced this kind of patriotic [identity] and really made it work for them and marginalised, frankly, Plaid Cymru and do really well out of playing this kind of patriotic game. Now, Labour in Scotland chose a very different route and that hasn’t really gone particularly well so I would suggest that there might be a few lessons to be learned.”

Prof Jones presented evidence which showed the link between people’s sense of national identity and their political preferences.

The Future of England Survey has found that 70% of those who define themselves as “exclusively English” would vote for the UK to leave the European Union. Just 17% of this group would vote to remain.

However, 52% of people in England who feel British and not English would vote to stay in the EU, with only 28% voting to leave.

Prof Jones said it was “certainly possible” England could vote a different way to Scotland and Wales on EU membership.

Stressing the importance of understanding English identity, he told the audience: “This isn’t going to go away. The genie is out of the bottle.

“England is emerging.”

A warning for Labour

In a statement accompanying the research, he said: “These data serve to throw into stark relief the extent of the challenge facing Labour given the rise of a politicised English national identity. With the party – if not its new leader – so strongly in favour of EU membership and apparently implacably opposed to any moves towards a system of English Votes for English Laws, Labour is out of sync with English national sentiment.

“Whilst some in the Labour may be tempted to dismiss constitutional questions as irrelevant, the fate of the party in Scotland should serve to remind them of dangers of becoming too detached from national sentiment.”

Only around one in five voters in England support the status quo with laws only affecting England voted on by all MPs.